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Friday, September 07, 2007

Speculating on the future of telecom in Ukraine

The Kyiv Post has published an interview with Tansu Yegen, the CEO of Astelit, Ukraine’s third-largest mobile telecom provider ... [with] a subscriber base of 6.3 million users.

Previously, Mr. Yegen worked as the Deputy General Manager of Microsoft Turkey and General Manager of Apple Turkey. ...

In his interview with the Post, Yegen predicted that the IT and telecom sectors will merge into a joint “ITC industry” in the future, opening up immense perspectives for telecom customers.
A controlling stake of 54.8 percent of Astelit is indirectly owned by Turkish telecom giant Turkcell ...


Another 45.2 percent of Astelit is owned by System Capital Management, part of the multi-billion-dollar portfolio controlled by Donetsk magnate Rinat Akhmetov.

Interesting to watch markets develop in an "emerging democracy." What seems to be developing in Ukraine, however, is an economic model exactly like the one in "established" democracies throughout the western world. Unfortunately, that model is based on crony capitalism, and modern-day Ukraine had that from the get-go.

That being said, there is no denying that in pretty much all spheres, good and bad, Ukraine is catching up to the west at a brisk pace! It's come an amazing distance in 17 years, and progress in the communications industry can only help speed up the process. Perhaps one day Ukraine can lead the world in creating a better economic model.

Entire interview here.

2 comments:

Taras said...

Don’t even think about beating our brand anytime soon!:)

In other words, I’d love to swap stakes, trading a pound of “our” crony capitalism for an ounce of “yours”:) Our crony capitalism did not come from the West; it came from within. It is “localcratic” in nature, not “cosmocratic.”

The only cure for our crony capitalism comes from competition, or, if you will, the right mix of globalization and governance.

Confessions of an Astelit/life:) customer:)))

Pawlina said...

Hey Taras, great to have you back!

Your "cure" is very sound, my good friend, and pretty much universal.

Ditto the roots of crony capitalism... which IMHO varies in degree only in terms of personal perspective. Eastern or western, it's all bad!

Unfortunately, in the west we have too many "social engineers" who are diametrically opposed to the idea of globalization and competition in the marketplace.

These socialist utopian idealists, ironically and most unfortunately, make life all the easier for crony capitalists.

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